Getting Ready for Resurrection to Reformation

My oldest started Heart of Dakota's Resurrection to Reformation (RtR) this week.  We are going slowly, hoping to get a day of the guide done in 2-3 physical days over the next 2-3 weeks.  Then we will move to at least half speed (1 day of the guide done in 2 physical days) if not faster.

When our books arrived, I put washi tape on the bindings and labeled the books as before.  The binding edge has the subject the book is used for (H=History, St=Storytime, Sc=Science) unless it is only one or two books for a subject for the whole year.  I left those bindings blanks.  Then on the front cover part of the tape I wrote out the subject and labeled what units it is used for.  This helps me make sure the right books are out in her bins in the living room at any given time.  The rest stay in our office on the bookshelf.

Then it was time to get the binders ready.  Her "first" binder is history and storytime. The history part has the notebooking pages from HOD.  For storytime, I printed a file from the RtR group on Facebook.  The guide instructs them to make index cards for each book with certain literary elements on them.  Since I knew index cards would get lost, the file that has writing space and those elements listed seemed like a great option.

The second binder is science.  Last year, my daughter routinely tried to skip science notebooking.  So this year, I made pages for all of science.  You can find these pages in the HOD group.  It is notebooking, narration (new for this level - replaced the 5 questions from Preparing and CtC), and lab report.  A few times through the year there are special assignments.  When they do the Voskamp book for example, there are "post cards" they complete.  So the file I created has a large rectangle to represent that.  For the Tiner book at the end, there are questions from the book they answer.  I typed those out so we have a better record (some are multiple choice, so having a page with letters on it is not helpful for record keeping).  I hole punched all of the pages, but none are actually in the binder normally yet.  The first 10 units I put in the front pocket.  The rest I split between page protectors in the back (10 units per page protector).  When I page is complete and checked, then it will go in the binder "officially."

The third binder is for a boxes that rotate each unit: Shakespeare, art, geography, and poetry.  The Shakespeare and art portions of the binder are the notebooking pages for those two subjects from HOD.  The art ones come with the history, and the Shakespeare ones are an additional item.  For geography, I printed all of the student maps from the CD that we will need (there is a file int he Facebook group listing the maps by unit).  I wrote what unit they were used for and then hole punched them and put them in a sheet protector like I did for science.  We will file them when they are done.  For poetry, I printed the pages from the Facebook group.  I don't know if I will make her fill them all out, but we are going to start that way.  I think it is intended to be more oral.  But, she often forgets to come to me.  So, a sheet she can fill in OR bring to me to fill in with her verbal answers will probably be helpful.  We will see how that goes.

The last binder I realized she needed as we started Unit 1.  And that binder is for writing.  I possibly could have fit this in another binder, but because they were already done, I just made a 4th binder.  The first thing I put in where the pages from the online student notebook that they will need this year.  They are Stylistic Techniques, Strong Verbs, -ly Adverbs, Quality Adjectives, Five Senses and Emotions, Proofreading Marks and Symbols, and Abbreviations for Note-Taking.  Then I counted the number of "papers" they were going to write, and I put a page protector in for each plus a few extra (about 20 total).  The last few assignments will probably be more than 1 page, but I don't know if they will be more than 2 pages (and hence needing 2 page protectors).  We already have a composition book that she will use for her rough drafts, so that is all that will be in this binder.

There is one more thing I created, and that is a "book" of the teacher maps for geography.  I printed them on cardstock, double sided.  Then, I put them in individual page protectors.  Then I put the page protectors into a report cover to make a book.  I can then reuse this book for all of my kids. 

We plan on using the guide basically as is.  The two exceptions are math (continuing with Horizons through Grade 6 at least) and the devotional Bible study.  I have decided to wait on the devotional Bible study until she is a little older.  She is only 10 and pushing to be grown up enough as is.  I think I Bible study that talks even more about maturing emotionally isn't necessary at this point.  Instead, during that time, she will work on Awana (when it starts) and study a chapter of the Bible (our church has been doing a chapter a week).  We will probably do the little pamphlets on the physical changes of maturity at the end of the year though.

Phonics

With my oldest, we started with Horizons phonics.  I liked Horizons math, so we thought it would be best to use one company.  I didn't love it though.  I feel it has too much handwriting for kids.  And I began to feel it was best to separate handwriting and phonics instruction, as kids aren't always ready for them at the same time. But, my oldest completed K and 1st grade, and then she was ready to read real books (Emerging Readers from Heart of Dakota is what we did next).

With my second, I didn't want to use Horizons again based on my feelings above.  So I bought Phonics Pathways after a lot of research.  I wanted an open and go curriculum that wasn't a workbook. I also wanted it to cover most of the rules, but it didn't have to cover everything.  I also bought Reading Pathways and the Boosters at that time.

Well, my son did not do well with it when we started.  He was/is the kind of child that workbooks work best.  So, back to Horizons we went.  We went slower, adding in Bob Books along the way.  Since his fine motor skills are great, he didn't struggle with the writing either (although going half speed probably was one of the biggest helps).  After he completed K, I thought he would be okay going to the Emerging Readers.  But he wasn't.  We read all of the Bob Books multiple times.  We read Elephant and Piggie books.  He made it through the Bibles and the first few Emerging Readers, and then it became a struggle.  So, I pulled out Reading Pathways for him.  He is almost done with the book (started the beginning of November).  And I think it is a huge help for him!  It really seems to be helping with his fluency.  Hopefully he can jump back into the ER books next week!

With my third, I knew workbooks weren't a good idea.  So she is using Phonics Pathways.  Everything was going well until we got to long vowels.  So, we went back to the beginning and started over.  We do about half a page of review and half a page of new things right now.  So it is SLOW going.  But, she is getting there!  Hopefully she will be ready to do a full page of each soon (or drop the review at some point).  But she is making steady progress!

As for the boosters, we haven't used them. I can see where games would be great and helpful, but I just don't have the time or energy to do them right now.  I have three kids in school plus a toddler.  Our days are full!  Instead, I did get a Starfall membership, and the middle two do use that some.